Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Over the past few months, the Municipal Government and the Vallartense Institute of Culture (IVC) have been working to preserve the sculptural heritage of Puerto Vallarta by restoring some of the city’s most recognized public art pieces.
With an investment of 300,000 pesos and after a diagnosis of the work to be done was made, specialists were contracted to rehabilitate ten of the city’s iconic sculptures. This is the first step of the public art renovation project, which will soon be extended to all the sculptures in Puerto Vallarta.
According to IVC Director Marina de los Santos Álvarez, at the beginning of the year Mayor Arturo Dávalos Peña instructed her to find specialists in the field, so she contacted sculptor Fernando Baños, who examined each of the art works to determine the amount of work required to restore each one to its former glory, and if relocating them would be necessary to keep them that way.
She explained that the above is with the intention of creating a sculptural catalog that includes complete and correct documentation of the donation or assignment of rights to the City Council for each of the art works, since the municipality must have all of the legal documents as well as the signatures of the artist to intervene when necessary.
Once the study was completed, the IVC Director contacted Puerto Vallarta Master Sculptors Gustavo López Ochoa, Héctor Montes and Octavio González Gutiérrez, who are in charge of carrying out the restoration of the public art works, which include: “John Huston” de Carlos Ramírez; “Isidro el Pescador” by Ramiz Barquet; “Don Agustín Flores Contreras” by Jiménez; “Tritón y Sirena” by Carlos Espino; “Fuente de la Amistad. Los Delfines” by Bud Bottoms; “Lorena Ochoa” and “La Ballena” by Octavio González Gutiérrez; and “Un Niño. Un Libro. Un Futuro” by Ramiz Barquet, among others.
Since the sculpture restoration project began several months ago, a great deal of progress has been made on some sculptures, while others are completely finished.
She reiterated that the Municipal Government invested around 300,000 pesos to restore the ten sculptures in the project’s first stage, adding that the Marina Vallarta Residents’ Association contributed 50% of the cost of the restoration of “La Ballena,” and promised to repair the fountain surrounding the sculpture, as well as the lighting system.
Marina de los Santos said that the goal is to have 90% of Puerto Vallarta’s sculptural heritage restored within 2 years. There are 75 public sculptures in Puerto Vallarta so, to meet this goal, efforts will be redoubled in 2020 and 2021 to restore and catalog 20 sculptures each year.
She stressed that their conservation is the responsibility of the Municipal Government through the IVC, so they are also in the process of obtaining all of the legal documentation so that these sculptures remain part of the city’s cultural heritage.
Municipal Government of Puerto Vallarta News Bulletin translated and edited by Margarita Bonita for BanderasNews.com.